Attached Link: Modeling a rapier

My husband has seen some of the rapier-like sword models available for Poser and doesn't think they quite model a rapier. He has set up a web page with photos and a movie of a rapier he owns if anyone wants to take that information to make a model.

Hello Lunaseas, thanks for the images. I wip one up. Here is a render. If you like it, let me know where to send the .obj file.

I just noticed I missed the hand finger guard. Be right back...

I'm back, I added the missing parts. Here is a untextured render.

Xurge, I for one am very very impressed. Posting a request to you is like being able to call on magic :)))))

Thanks soulsong, I love doing this stuff. When I saw the request, I could not help myself.

Umm.... er... WOW... can I just borrow the talent in your little pinky?

Wow, overnight and boom a rapier! Please send the obj file to me at: mightyaphroditeami@yahoo.com Once again, thanks for your impressive and speedy response! -Kirsten

Its being uploaded as I type. You should receive it in the next few minutes.

Flatten & widen the blade a bit and you have a great model for a schlagger weapon.

A couple of notes from my husband. The following words are all his, not mine: First, the overal shape of the model is very nice. I congratulate you. You did make one material error that is also made by a lot of antiquarians and museum curators. You made the ricasso part of the "hilt" material instead of part of the "blade" material. However, a good texture map can get around this detail. Unfortunately the model's proportions are not right for a rapier--they're more appropriate for a modern foil with an overly-short blade. I discovered this when I shrank it down to fit into the man's hand--the overall weapon was far too short, especially the blade. Furthermore, the blade is too narrow for this type of rapier. Ultra-narrow rapiers were more typical of the later Transitional era (which usually had a cup-style hilt). If you look at the diagram photo up top, a typical rapier would have the following length proportions: Section A: 12.3% Section B: 4.8% Section C: 82.9% Yes, the weapon has THAT MUCH length in its blade. The idea was to get the enemy as far away from you as you could manage. If he got in close, that was what the dagger or a good kick to the knees was for (or a slam with that stout pommel). The blade would have a width at its widest point roughly 1/2 the "B" distance. As for a "schlagger" weapon--The proper schlaeger uses a "scottish"-looking basket hilt and is used entirely for cutting, no thrusts at all. The fact that some hobbyist groups have mis-adapted it for what they call "rapier" in no way makes the practice schlaeger a good model for the rapier. Indeed, the practice schlaeger blade is actually too short and too light for accurate rapier representation. I am working on a set of poses from 16th-century rapier manuals and will have my wife make them available once I am finished. It may be a while, since they're fairly tricky to get just so. In short, a very good model, since it is only such specific fine details that I can criticize.

Is your husbands name Rick?

If you give me the sizes in inches or millimeters, I can model to scale.

My husband's name is Bryan, or as I like to call him, Mr Picky:). Thanks Xurge, I'll get him to do that for you.

This is Bryan, I now have some technical drawings made from the original plans. I was told that you needed them in metric units, so that is why all the measurements are to the nearest 1/10 millimeter, due to conversion. First the blade:

The hilt technical drawing. One very important note. Even though the ricasso (rectangular cross-section piece) is part of the "hilt" drawing, as a material, it should be part of the *blade*, since the blade actually is one piece of steel that goes all the way from the point through the pommel. I have added one detail that does not appear on my own rapier but that would appear on any historical rapier. This is the pommel nut (marked with a "z" on the drawing). A proper, true right and proper, European sword does NOT have a threaded tang. Instead, the tang goes *all* the way through the pommel with a slight projection. A circular (not hexagonal) "nut" is put over this projection--but more of the tang should still protrude. The extra is then peened over to solidify the sword. The advantage to this is that it is much more solid than a threaded tang. The disadvantage is that if it ever does get knocked loose, you have to go to a smith to fix it. In the modern day, this construction method seems to also be more expensive than a threaded tang.

Some suggestions in using the rapier model if you're better at the technical end than I am: There are (at least from a visiual standpoint) five materials on a rapier: pommel nut pommel hilt handle blade But "blade" should include the ricasso. I don't know how to make morphs or add poseability, but if anybody would want to do that, morphs would be an excellent way to make one rapier model into an infinite number of rapiers. All of the following (according to my research) seem to have varied independenly of each other: Blade length (by up to 10% in either direction for a man of given height). Blade width (by up to 20% wider or 10% narrower). Blade thickness (by up to 10% thicker than in my figures). Waviness--yes, some rapiers had wavy "flamberge" style blades, but that seems to have been more of a fad. Pommel shape (from my truncated cone or "penis-head" to a sphere, to carved miniature human heads, to semispheres, so long as it was sufficiently weighty). Hilt Rings (more or less circular, bigger, smaller) Quillions (one bent forward, both bent forward, one bent forward the other back, both bent so as to have an "S" effect, also varied greatly in length) Knucklebow (Shorter, with or without ornamental reverse curve at end, absent altogether). Unfortunately, I have no idea how I would add such morph features to a rapier model. Magnets seem to only work on the whole model at once.